Vernon Davis breaks down this similarity between 49ers of 2012 and 2023

The 49ers of 2012 were a powerhouse team that made it to the Super Bowl, and Vernon Davis sees comparisons with the Niners of 2023 in a similar position.

The San Francisco 49ers have had three Super Bowl teams this century, one of which will have an outcome this upcoming Sunday, Feb. 11, when they battle the Kansas City Chiefs for the right to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

One of the other two Super Bowl Niners squads, the 2012 team, was one of the most dominant teams in franchise history. Behind head coach Jim Harbaugh, that squad pulled off a crazy come-from-behind win in the NFC Championship game over the Atlanta Falcons, erasing a 17-point deficit in the process.

Sound familiar? The 2023 San Francisco squad did the exact same thing nearly two weeks ago.

Former NFL tight end Vernon Davis was on that 2012 team and enjoyed those Harbaugh years in which the 49ers were at the pinnacle of their strength. Not unlike the current group under head coach Kyle Shanahan, Davis' Niners made the NFC Championship game three years in a row but only got to the Super Bowl once after that memorable 2012 season.

Interestingly enough, Davis sees a lot of similarities between the two teams of different eras.

Vernon Davis says both 2012 49ers and 2023 49ers had 'sense of urgency'

Davis was kind enough to join our colleagues Patrick Allen and Malcom Harris-Gowdie of FanSided's Stacking the Box Podcast from radio row at Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and one of the questions asked was what Davi noticed between his 2012 Niners in comparison to the 2023 squad.

His answer was provocative.

"I think the energy is there," Davis explained. "What I look for when I see a team based on the team we had in Super Bowl 47, I think the tenacity and the sense of urgency. Both offensively and defensively. It's all clicking just like the way it clicked for us. I just see the same approach when it comes to the game."

Perhaps that desperation was reflected in how both Davis' Niners came from behind against Atlanta, which set a playoff record for overcoming a deficit, one which San Francisco tied by beating the Detroit Lions nearly two weeks ago in order to advance to the Super Bowl.

According to Davis, though, there's another reason for the sense of urgency.

"You can tell that guys know that 'if we don't win this, we're not coming back,'" Davis continued. "This is it. We're done."

While that sounds damning, especially considering both the Harbaugh-era 49ers and the current Niners have had multiple shots at Super Bowl glory, Davis stressed that having that kind of mentality was a necessity for pulling off the ultimate win of the season.

Davis appears with FanSided, courtesy of Smirnoff.

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